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The Friends of Tilling was formed by Darren Reynolds and Jonathan Dunlop in order to organise an annual Gathering, a tradition started in 1982 by the Tilling Society. The Gatherings bring together all Mapp & Lucia devotees to revel in the world of Tilling and remember the life of its creator E F Benson. Any Benson enthusiast including members of the E F Benson Society would be made most welcome. We are delighted to have Mr Gyles Brandreth as our President and as Vice Presidents the composer and musician Sir Richard Rodney Bennett CBE and the writer and novelist Alexander McCall Smith CBE.

If you would like to attend one of our Gatherings and wish to be added to the mailing list please contact us by E-mail. We would be grateful if you would include your postal address as well as your E-mail address.

The next Gathering of the Friends of Tilling will take place on Saturday 7th September 2013.

NEWS:

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

We were very sad to hear of the passing of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett on Christmas Eve 2012. He had served as our Vice President since 2005. Sir Richard had been fascinated with E F Benson and the  Lucia novels in particular. In the 1960s he collaborated with Aubrey Woods on a musical version of Mapp & Lucia. The work was the culmination of a huge amount of research into the novels and characters but was sadly never produced. In 2005 Sir Richard spoke on the subject at our annual Gathering and performed a number of the songs. The evening was one of the most memorable and enjoyable events that we can remember ending in a riotous standing ovation. We are delighted to have a recording of the evening and hope, as a tribute to Sir Richard, to revisit it as part of this year's forthcoming Gathering in September. 
 

The President's Pin - 'Fodere Altius'

On behalf of our President we are delighted to announce the foundation of an award to be given for services to The Friends of Tilling. The first recipients of the President's Pin were announced on March 8th (our president's birthday) and the insignia will be presented at the Gathering in September.

Tom Holt's "Lucia in Wartime" and "Lucia Triumphant" have both been reissued by Coffeetown Press and are available here. This is excellent news for Mapp & Lucia devotees as they have been very difficult to get hold of for many years.

The Tilling Quiz 2012 is now available online here

Guy Fraser Sampsons’s new book “Lucia on Holiday” based on EFB’s characters is now available from Amazon.

Now available: Friends of Tilling Greetings Cards.

Contact us by E-mail or by Post:

The Friends of Tilling
56 Coles Lane
Sutton Coldfield
West Midlands
B72 1NH

The Frank Slater drawing is reproduced by kind permission of the E F Benson Society.

“From quiet homes and first beginning,

Out to the undiscovered ends,

There's nothing worth the wear of winning,

But laughter and the love of friends.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), British author. "Dedicatory Ode," Verses (1910).

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett - Tilling Gathering 2005